“No culture!”: State Duma deputies are concerned about the fate of the creative intelligentsia

State Duma deputies called for the creation of “magnet clusters” for creative people in Russian regions. On Friday, parliamentary hearings on the topic of creative industries were held in the lower house. The bill supporting them passed its first reading this week. Now the Duma members are thinking about what to do next with the creative intelligentsia: regulate it, help with money, or simply not interfere.

It is best not to interfere with creative people. This opinion was expressed by deputy Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR) at parliamentary hearings in the State Duma on Friday.

– Founder of the LDPR (Vladimir Zhirinovsky. – “MK”) has repeatedly advocated the slogan: “Don’t stop people from working!” They will do everything themselves, just don’t interfere, don’t push, don’t scare. And then there will be development,” the deputy said.

He also expressed concerns about excessive bureaucratization that the new law might entail.

– Some additional information, papers, actions – all this can again lead to the shadows. This can delegalize, beat on hands,” Nilov warned his colleagues in the chamber.

Deputy Oleg Svintsov (LDPR), on the contrary, believes that it is necessary to unite everything that a person creates – from architecture to music and poetry – into a single community.

“In the bill we have provided for the possibility of creating creative clusters that will be a magnet for the creative intelligentsia,” Svintsov emphasized.

He explained that in such clusters, creative Russians will be able to receive, among other things, legal advice. For example, to register copyrights for your inventions, books or computer games.

– There are inventions all over the world that have made a lot of people rich. But the roots of these inventions were often in Russia. Due to the fact that we are not able to accompany the creativity of our people, they lose their copyright. Their inventions are stolen. We are also losing economic potential,” said the parliamentarian.

On November 28, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill on the development of creative industries.

The authors of the initiative were a group of deputies and senators. Among them are the first vice-speaker of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov (United Russia), vice-speakers of the chamber Pyotr Tolstoy (United Russia) and Vladislav Davankov (New People), head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrei Klishas.

The developers note that the bill was created in pursuance of President Vladimir Putin, as well as in order to unify approaches to creative industries in Russia.

These include folk arts, crafts, the activities of art galleries, the creation and use of works of literature and art, including drama, choreography, theater, fine arts and cinema.

In addition, IT technologies are noted among the creative industries: data processing, software development, creation of computers and video games, advertising, publishing, and media activities. Finally, parliamentarians included the work of designers and couturiers, architecture and gastronomy as creative industries.

The authors of the bill note that there are currently about 20 laws in the country that, to one degree or another, regulate all these professions. The idea is to adopt a new law, uniform for all representatives of the creative class. It will be basic and framework, the Duma members emphasize.

While there are discussions in the State Duma about what the creative intelligentsia really needs: regulation or development. Most Duma members are inclined to the second option. In addition, it is proposed to assign all types of creative industries to one department, or even create a new one. Now many areas of creative work are assigned to the Ministry of Culture.

– No culture! – said the co-author of the bill, deputy Denis Kravchenko (United Russia). But he immediately corrected himself: he did not want to offend Olga Lyubimova’s department or the creators themselves. It’s just that, according to United Russia, the creative class needs some kind of “economic leverage.” Simply put, they need an agency that will help them receive budget support. The Ministry of Economic Development will handle this best, the authors of the document believe.